WA Govt Gas Policy Report Today, page-286

It was quite apparent they struggled to understand the nuances around bringing forward gas productions. Both MIN and STX repeated the same explanation many times over in their submissions that the export revenue is to help with bringing extra volume forward. The total volume of gas produced will be same regardless of the decision. What will change by the decision is WHEN and HOW MUCH of it is produced. If the govt wants to mitigate against the projected shortfall from 2030, it can either look to squash demand (which is not going to happen with its plan to decommission coal power plants and expand its critical minerals sector), or look to bring extra supply online by 2030. So in this context, it's not just volume that matters, it's also timing. With the long lead time to build processing plants, the decision window is very small. If the current window is missed and the forecasted shortage occurs in 2030 or earlier, history will be the best judge of Cook and his government.

As with most cases in politics, by the time the consequences of their decisions are being suffered by the people, the politicians in question would have long sailed into the sunset with their generous publicly funded pensions.

618